The present invention is an improvement of the “Hand Wash Monitoring System and Method” as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,443,305, issued Oct. 28, 2008, to Vincent L. Verdiramo, which patent is hereafter referred to as the “2008 Hand Wash Patent”, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
As described in the 2008 Hand Wash Patent, when a monitored individual, such a restaurant employee, enters or exits a lavatory, an identification device worn by the monitored individual is sensed by an identity sensor located near the lavatory door. The monitored individual also wears an indicator device on or about his/her hands. Inside the lavatory, there is a hand cleaning station that has soap dispensers positioned above a dispenser opening, within which is a pair of indicator readers that are activated by detecting the indicator device when the monitored individual inserts his/her hands into the dispenser opening. Should the identity sensor sense the individual's departure from the lavatory without receiving confirmation of hand washing activity from the indicator readers, a warning signal is generated, which is sent to the computer system and to an appropriate officer, who can then reprimand the individual.
In the preferred embodiment described in the 2008 Hand Wash Patent, the hand cleaning station also has a sensor light emitter that projects one or more light beams across the dispenser opening to a sensor light reader, such that when the hands of the monitored individual are inserted into the dispenser opening to access the soap dispenser, the light beams are broken and a corresponding signal is sent to a dispensing controller, which dispensing controller responds to the signal by activating the soap dispensers to deposit a hand wash solution on the hands of the monitored individual.
The preferred embodiment described in the 2008 Hand Wash Patent has the disadvantage of having redundant hand detection apparatus in the hand wash station, insofar as it requires both a pair of indicator readers and a sensor light emitter-receiver pair, with the former serving to detect the indicator device on the monitored individual's hands and the latter serving to dispense soap onto the individual's hands. This redundancy adds both to the expense of the hand cleaning station and the potential for malfunction.
In the present invention, this redundancy is eliminated by utilizing the indicator readers alone to perform both functions, i.e. both detecting the presence of the individual's hands within the dispenser opening and activating the soap dispenser. The present invention also further refines the hand cleaning stations design by providing a mechanism for computerized control of the amount of hand wash solution dispensed by the soap dispensers.